Exercise boosts the brain - and mental health

Greenwich Time/WaPo ^ | Bob Holmes

[RoosterRedux]

Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety aren't easy to treat. Medications help many but have a high failure rate and may bring nasty side effects. Talk therapy is time-consuming and expensive. And neither approach is suited to preventing the disorders from developing in the first place.

But many people overlook another option that, when it works, can be one of the most effective, least disruptive and cheapest ways of managing mental health disorders: exercise.

It's hardly news that exercise is good for your physical health, and has long been extolled as beneficial for mental health, as well. But researchers are now making progress in understanding how exercise works its mental magic.

Exercise, they are learning, has profound effects on the brain's structure itself, and it also provides other, more subtle benefits such as focus, a sense of accomplishment and sometimes social stimulation - all of which are therapeutic in their own right. And while more is generally better, even modest levels of physical activity, such as a daily walk, can pay big dividends for mental health.

"It's a very potent intervention to be physically active," says Anders Hovland, a clinical psychologist at the University of Bergen in Norway.

[RoosterRedux]

I do a cardio workout every day. Life would be quite different (i.e., worse) without it.

[GaltAdonis]

THIS JUST IN:

It's now been PROVEN BY SCIENCE(tm) that - The Sky Is Blue.

Best to go get some exercise beneath it. Yup.

(LOL)

[Joe Brower]

I do a long-established routine of warm-ups, core, weights, running and stretches, usually four, sometimes five times a week. Nothing extreme -- that was in my younger days. Now, at 60, the goal is to stay operational, as well as stave off a plethora of ailments, major and minor, that are usually commonplace at my age.

Being still a full-time working stiff, the tough part is getting up at 04:30 in the morning to get it all done and be to work on time!

[Bobalu]

Exercise boosts the brain - and mental health

Well, it's no wonder I'm crazy and stupid...

[erlayman]

Fasting and CR do the same.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4790398/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5908110/

[lee martell]

I do a little work with dumbbells and my barbell, but i definitely need to do more. I suppose I get a little bored with it.

Even still, every so often I think of what I once heard Condoleeza Rice say about her late father: that he remained healthy well into old age, but soon after he decided to stop his fitness routine, he suddenly developed health problems. Within a year or two he had passed away.

[John Milner]

When I was working a particularly stressful lower level management job (all the responsibility, none of the power), I found if I took a 30 minute walk in the fresh air (even if it was bitterly cold) I felt like there was some connection to reality again.

I highly recommend a midday walk for any working person that isn’t doing physical work as a part of their daily routine.